News and commentary: progress in work

Tag: Silicon Valley

Google Fires Free-Speech Advocate

Search giant Google has apparently terminated the employment of software engineer Mike Wacker. Last month, the self-described Republican published an open letter about the “outrage mobs” that evidently run the show within the company. The only political views acceptable within Google are left or far left; expressing a dissenting view prompts complaints to HR., Wacker claimed. Wacker even hinted that going public could result in his firing. read more

Trump White House Launches Tech Bias Website: Now What?

Last year, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson predicted that “Silicon Valley is never going to let 2016 happen again.” He was referring to Donald Trump’s social-media-enabled surprise victory — at least to the political establishment and pollsters — over Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. Parenthetically, a similar unexpected result has apparently just played out in the Australian national elections. read more

Facebook Employees Band Together to Support Diversity and Tolerance

About 100 bold Facebook employees have stepped forward to align themselves with a group calling for ideological rather than merely cosmetic diversity.

In an unusually fair story, The New York Times reported on this development.

“The post went up quietly on Facebook’s internal message board last week. Titled ‘We Have a Problem With Political Diversity,’ it quickly took off inside the social network. ‘We are a political monoculture that’s intolerant of different views,’ Brian Amerige, a senior Facebook engineer, wrote in the post, which was obtained by The New York Times. ‘We claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology.’ Since the post went up, more than 100 Facebook employees have joined Mr. Amerige to form an online group called FB’ers for Political Diversity, according to two people who viewed the group’s page and who were not authorized to speak publicly. The aim of the initiative, according to Mr. Amerige’s memo, is to create a space for ideological diversity within the company.”

The post went up quietly on Facebook’s internal message board. Titled “We Have a Problem With Political Diversity,” it quickly took off inside the social network. https://t.co/aHEZ09cRSh read more